Energy Bill

moved Amendment No. 53: 53: Before Clause 80, insert the following new Clause— ““Use of biomethane (1) In section 32(8) of the Electricity Act 1989 (c. 29) (obligation in connection with electricity from renewable sources), in the definition of ““renewable sources””, insert at the end ““and shall include the use of any gas drawn from a gas network to which premises supplied by the supplier are connected where, at the time the gas is drawn from the network, the supplier has arranged for the shipping to the consumer at those premises of the same quantity of renewable biomethane gas and that quantity has been introduced to the gas transmission or distribution system to which the consumer’s premises are connected;””. (2) In section 124 of the Energy Act 2004 (c. 20) (imposition of renewable transfer fuel obligations), after subsection (5) insert— ““(6) For the purposes of this section, ““supplied”” shall include supply of any gas or other fuel drawn from a gas or other fuel network to any premises where, at the time the gas or other fuel is drawn from the network by a consumer, the supplier has arranged for the shipping to the consumer at the same premises of the same quantity of renewable transport fuel and that quantity has been introduced to the gas transmission or distribution system to which those premises are connected.”””” The noble Lord said: I have the happy experience of moving an amendment on an issue that should be clear to all noble Lords, because it is a main component in the plot of ““The Archers””. Why I need to continue, and not sit down at this very moment, is that the Minister will stand up and say that because it has been explained carefully on ““The Archers””, he will immediately accept the amendment, because it would be beyond the wit of man to do otherwise. However, just in case the Minister is not a great fan of ““The Archers””—and it looks like we will miss today’s instalment, anyway—perhaps I should explain the purpose of the amendment. We come to the odorous subject of biomethane—that is one of the issues in the plot of ““The Archers””. It is a serious issue and it is unfortunate that it has not been dealt with in the Bill, because it needs to be dealt with quickly, as it will be a major component of many aspects of waste recycling and our use of waste and landfill in the future. The purpose of the amendment is simple, although many noble Lords, when they read an amendment, ask, ““Does it actually do what you think it does?”” because of the language it is dressed up in. The purpose of the amendment is that biomethane should attract renewable obligation credits. Why is this important? We are looking at a very important future source of energy; however, to kickstart that energy, we have to find a way for biomethane to be injected into the grid and for its economics to work. Where does biomethane come from? It comes from three main sources: anaerobic digestion plants, manure—a number of farm plants deal exclusively with farm manure—and landfill sites. The importance of taking biomethane from those sites relates not just to the energy that it can produce but also to the fact that, left to rot on its own, it will escape to the atmosphere. It is a major greenhouse gas and causes problems associated with greenhouse gases. Biomethane can be dealt with by being extracted and purified, and the CO2 can be taken out of the system. The methane is not released directly to the atmosphere, but will be converted into carbon dioxide. It is not a great solution, because of the problems associated with carbon dioxide, but it is a great deal better than releasing methane into the atmosphere. Can we describe biomethane as ““renewable””? That is another issue that has to be looked at. I would argue that it is one of the major renewables, especially if it comes from manure. I have had many arguments in the context of agriculture about greenhouse emissions from the methane produced by cows and sheep. One of the major problems, which is interesting, is that it is difficult to tell what those emissions would be, unless you attached a bag to both ends of the animal. That would mean that you would end up with a dead cow or sheep, but you would know what the biomethane output was. I raise that only because the climate-change ambassador for New Zealand and I had lunch. I was surprised to hear that New Zealand claims that it has less flatulent sheep than we have here. I find that very hard to accept, because its criteria are based on the intensive rearing of sheep which means that there is a higher methane output. In Northumberland, where there is at worst one sheep in every two acres, that is not the case at all. However, we still have the problem of the methane, and biomethane removes that. As a renewable, biomethane has major benefits because it is very energy-efficient, especially if it is added to a CHP plant. We will be coming on to combined heat and power, which makes the use of any gas far more efficient. One problem, however, is that these processes, as has been expressed in ““The Archers””, are quite odorous in their nature, so you do not want to stick the plants close to tower blocks where a district heat system could be used. You might win on one side but lose the support of many of the residents in another aspect. Much of the methane is losing out on its major benefit through CHP because it would have to be transported from site and therefore injected into the gas grid. This is the important aspect of the Bill. The attraction of renewable obligation credits is that they would allow biomethane to be injected into the localised grid, over and above being dealt with by local energy electricity generation—or, as in the case of landfill, which is a major problem, by sometimes being flared off directly into the atmosphere. The latter has been banned on offshore oil and gas rigs, and it seems incredible that we allow it to take place on landfill sites, which are a direct result of human activity. We need to look at the benefits of what is happening in other parts of the world. Within Europe, it has been estimated that if the sustainable production of biomethane were optimised at 500 billion metric cubic whatever it is—I love it when they give you a briefing and you have no idea what the unit you are measuring represents. I apologise; I have just realised that they have a different measuring system in my notes. The calculation is that optimisation would result in a reduction of 15 per cent of Europe’s CO2 emissions. Although I have a number of examples from within Europe, the scale of this should be looked at with regard to the situation in America. Huckaby Ridge in Stephenville, Texas, claims to be the largest biogas production facility in the world with an output of approximately 650,000—whatever it is you measure biogas in—which is the equivalent of 1 billion cubic feet. That is the energy equivalent of more than 4.6 million gallons of heating oil, and it uses the manure of 10,000 dairy cows and waste from the agriculture industry. That is important; if the manure were not being treated in that way then that methane would be released into the atmosphere. It is such a successful scheme that they are looking to introduce it in other, vast areas. I find it incredible that, with the industries we have in this country such as the dairy industry, where so many farmers could benefit from that scheme as an added source of income, we are not looking at adopting it. It might cause a problem for the renewable obligations credits but would have massive benefits, not only for the country but in our fight against climate change. I beg to move.